Randy Alexander is at the mercy of the contracts.

“We had this very predictable thing year after year after year,” Alexander, the Department of Residence’s director said Friday after the announcement that Helser Hall would not reopen for the 2004-05 school year. “All the sudden, they don’t work.”

Many of the changes within the residence system are planned — a new building, similar to Eaton Hall, of suites primarily for freshmen opening in the fall, for example, or this year’s replacement of Friley Hall dining services with the Union Drive Community Center.

In the last 24 months, though, Alexander said, some uncharacteristically inaccurate enrollment projections have played major roles in the abrupt closings of Helser Hall, Barton Hall, Fisher-Nickell Hall, Knapp Hall and the Linden Dining Center.

Other problems, such as a defective roof on Fisher-Nickell Hall, have been factors, but it’s the number of people living in the residence halls that provides the department an enormous chunk of its revenue and determines its budget.

“The last two years, it has been very sudden,” Alexander said. “The reason it’s happened the way it has the last two years is they’ve been very irregular years in the way contracts have come in; they haven’t followed the usual pattern we’ve had.”

The 163 students who had planned to return to Helser Hall in the fall before Friday’s announcement said they weren’t pleased with the decision, its timing or the method of its release.

“They kind of assured us without saying it that this hall would be here next semester,” said Owen Koch, sophomore in computer engineering. “It’s not our fault.”

According to a letter sent to the Helser Hall returnees, spaces in Friley Hall, Eaton Hall and the still-unnamed new suite building will be held only for the displaced residents until Friday. Incoming freshmen haven’t been assigned rooms yet, so plenty of spaces are still available for roommate pairs and perhaps entire floors to move together, residence officials said.

“I’m happy that they gave us what they did,” said Jonathan Shipley, sophomore in aerospace engineering.

However, Shipley said, he and his friends won’t have the opportunity to select larger or otherwise more-desirable rooms though.

“They should have just done it all over again,” he said. “All the good rooms were picked; we kind of get hosed in the end.”

Barton Hall residents learned in January they would have different arrangements for fall 2004. Knapp Hall residents found out in August their building would close for good in December. The May closure of Fisher-Nickell Hall was announced in October, and the Linden Dining Center closed in October, one month after it was announced the center would stay closed through May and then reopen next fall.

Alexander said Friday Linden’s dining service will again be closed this fall, which will save the Department of Residence almost $400,000.

In each of the other cases, students expressed disappointment about the changes in meetings with Alexander and other residence officials. The same process began again Friday for Helser Hall residents.

Alexander said he’s sensitive to his constituents’ feelings, although he emphasized his department has the contractual right to put students wherever it sees fit.

“What you’re contracting for is a space, and we ask [for your preference],” he said. “In the event we cannot meet your request, we’ll put you in a similar accommodation.”

Having Helser closed will account for more than one-third of the $1.7 million the Department of Residence is trying to cut from its expenses.

“Everyone who wants to return could return, and we’d still have space for freshmen,” Alexander said. “Why would you not save $640,000 of students’ money?”